Eastern HS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish they would be way more transparent about admissions and performance of the IB program. Maybe it's great! But there are numbers that exist that could be easily used to show this, if it's actually the case.

Well, clearly it's not great if 1% of the kids are passing the math CAPE. But yes, more information would be lovely.

If the 1% is the IB program students, then that’s fine. Your kid will be in the group of kids that are actually learning.

Not all the time. They will still take electives and participate in clubs and other ECs with the 99% of kids who are below grade level. Really think about what that means, to be in a school environment where the vast majority of students are struggling to meet minimum academic standards. Think how small and limited this will make your child's experience, how limiting it will be in terms of friendships, what it will look like for your kid post HS when so few peers pursue college, when many don't even graduate.

Some families don't have much choice of whether to send their kids to a school like that. But in DC people have a choice. And most parents who really value education will continue to not choose Eastern simply because they want more and better for their kids.

I mean … my kid is at a feeder MS for Eastern and I am aware of all of the considerations for his academic needs. But you sound really gross when you write off the less affluent and yes, Black kids, as being basically worthless. I can tell you that my kid is friends with kids of all types and some of those kids you see and worthless have been bright stars for his life. And he has learned to work with and understand all different types of people. I know you’ll claim I am a bad SJW parent but moving him to an all-white affluent school woule be a huge loss in many respects.

NP. You need to get help. No one is saying black kids are worthless. No one. All middle schools in the city are diverse and have black kids, some more than other.

Some kids don’t have options and have to take what life gives them and that is the lower SES kids is what PP is saying.

But as a parent, most with options will not send them to such a poorly performing school just because there of more diversity. They just are not. It’s not like kids at other schools are not friends with minority kids and can get the same experience either.

Also PP above is absolutely correct. The experience of your kid will be very different with friends who can’t relate to things, friends who can’t do things, etc….

The reason they won't send them though is because they don't want to interact with lower SES families and then the domino effect happens because almost all UMC families, who do have resources to help the school, leave.

Mann's PTO can literally fund teachers. Lots of Title 1 schools PTOs can maybe afford a couple pizza parties.

The education follows the money, not, as plenty here want to believe, the money follows the education. And you know that because your last sentence is literally we only want to be around other people with money.

They didn't say that. And most of the low income kids zoned for Eastern also don't go there!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish they would be way more transparent about admissions and performance of the IB program. Maybe it's great! But there are numbers that exist that could be easily used to show this, if it's actually the case.

Well, clearly it's not great if 1% of the kids are passing the math CAPE. But yes, more information would be lovely.

If the 1% is the IB program students, then that’s fine. Your kid will be in the group of kids that are actually learning.

Not all the time. They will still take electives and participate in clubs and other ECs with the 99% of kids who are below grade level. Really think about what that means, to be in a school environment where the vast majority of students are struggling to meet minimum academic standards. Think how small and limited this will make your child's experience, how limiting it will be in terms of friendships, what it will look like for your kid post HS when so few peers pursue college, when many don't even graduate.

Some families don't have much choice of whether to send their kids to a school like that. But in DC people have a choice. And most parents who really value education will continue to not choose Eastern simply because they want more and better for their kids.

I mean … my kid is at a feeder MS for Eastern and I am aware of all of the considerations for his academic needs. But you sound really gross when you write off the less affluent and yes, Black kids, as being basically worthless. I can tell you that my kid is friends with kids of all types and some of those kids you see and worthless have been bright stars for his life. And he has learned to work with and understand all different types of people. I know you’ll claim I am a bad SJW parent but moving him to an all-white affluent school woule be a huge loss in many respects.

NP. You need to get help. No one is saying black kids are worthless. No one. All middle schools in the city are diverse and have black kids, some more than other.

Some kids don’t have options and have to take what life gives them and that is the lower SES kids is what PP is saying.

But as a parent, most with options will not send them to such a poorly performing school just because there of more diversity. They just are not. It’s not like kids at other schools are not friends with minority kids and can get the same experience either.

Also PP above is absolutely correct. The experience of your kid will be very different with friends who can’t relate to things, friends who can’t do things, etc….

The reason they won't send them though is because they don't want to interact with lower SES families and then the domino effect happens because almost all UMC families, who do have resources to help the school, leave.

Mann's PTO can literally fund teachers. Lots of Title 1 schools PTOs can maybe afford a couple pizza parties.

The education follows the money, not, as plenty here want to believe, the money follows the education. And you know that because your last sentence is literally we only want to be around other people with money.

When you are talking to parents that have their kids at an Eastern feeder for MS, to remotely suggest they don't want their kids at a school with Black or lower SES kids is laughable. This attitude is what drives people out of DCPS entirely. It's like when my coworkers with kids in the Whitman pyramid lecture me for being concerned about the lack of tracking in DCPS MSes outside of math and (sometimes) ELA. GTFO.

I actually said nothing about race. But the OP pretty blatantly said other kids "can't relate" so yes there's a clear SES issue at play at a lot of schools like Eastern. As higher SES kids leave, parents get gun shy about being the only ones left and that sets off a mad dash of higher performing kids.

I'm not saying Eastern is perfect, but there's absolutely SES prisoner's dilemma that happens at more diverse socioeconomic schools. There are whole threads on here about how terrible the J-R principal is and the drug problems at Hardy and MacArthur. And yet UMC families in other feeders are Hunger Games style lotterying for spots because since they're in predominantly wealthy areas there's the assumption that you'll always have a pipeline of UMC and wealthy kids and families and thus test scores won't drop and kids will have peer hobbies.

I'm not judging people who are weary of other DCPS HSs I'm simply stating that there is obviously an underlying SES impact at play here and causes issues for both families and the schools themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish they would be way more transparent about admissions and performance of the IB program. Maybe it's great! But there are numbers that exist that could be easily used to show this, if it's actually the case.

Well, clearly it's not great if 1% of the kids are passing the math CAPE. But yes, more information would be lovely.

If the 1% is the IB program students, then that’s fine. Your kid will be in the group of kids that are actually learning.

Not all the time. They will still take electives and participate in clubs and other ECs with the 99% of kids who are below grade level. Really think about what that means, to be in a school environment where the vast majority of students are struggling to meet minimum academic standards. Think how small and limited this will make your child's experience, how limiting it will be in terms of friendships, what it will look like for your kid post HS when so few peers pursue college, when many don't even graduate.

Some families don't have much choice of whether to send their kids to a school like that. But in DC people have a choice. And most parents who really value education will continue to not choose Eastern simply because they want more and better for their kids.

I mean … my kid is at a feeder MS for Eastern and I am aware of all of the considerations for his academic needs. But you sound really gross when you write off the less affluent and yes, Black kids, as being basically worthless. I can tell you that my kid is friends with kids of all types and some of those kids you see and worthless have been bright stars for his life. And he has learned to work with and understand all different types of people. I know you’ll claim I am a bad SJW parent but moving him to an all-white affluent school woule be a huge loss in many respects.

NP. You need to get help. No one is saying black kids are worthless. No one. All middle schools in the city are diverse and have black kids, some more than other.

Some kids don’t have options and have to take what life gives them and that is the lower SES kids is what PP is saying.

But as a parent, most with options will not send them to such a poorly performing school just because there of more diversity. They just are not. It’s not like kids at other schools are not friends with minority kids and can get the same experience either.

Also PP above is absolutely correct. The experience of your kid will be very different with friends who can’t relate to things, friends who can’t do things, etc….

The reason they won't send them though is because they don't want to interact with lower SES families and then the domino effect happens because almost all UMC families, who do have resources to help the school, leave.

Mann's PTO can literally fund teachers. Lots of Title 1 schools PTOs can maybe afford a couple pizza parties.

The education follows the money, not, as plenty here want to believe, the money follows the education. And you know that because your last sentence is literally we only want to be around other people with money.

They didn't say that. And most of the low income kids zoned for Eastern also don't go there!

What else, truly, is this supposed to me?

"Also PP above is absolutely correct. The experience of your kid will be very different with friends who can’t relate to things, friends who can’t do things, etc…."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eastern could fill some of those 9th-grade lottery seats that are open this summer and raise their test scores in the process if they just said the words "any kid with at grade level PARCC scores can get into our IB program, and you will only be in classes with other kids at or above grade level." It's not complicated at all.

If pretty much every kid is below grade level and you let anyone into IB, you pretty much either have a class of 2 kids or the IB classes are remedial at best. Like “honors for all” at Jackson reed.

+1. I would also argue that kids should be above grade level for IB.

But not surprised how some families accept such low standards in this town just like DCPS.

IB is really rigorous. It’s a waste of time to go through the really difficult process of taking those exams when you are only at grade level. There are honestly more productive things to do with your time like take some AP exams that you could potentially get a 4/5 in than go through the IB diploma process to ultimately not get it. Remember for the IB diploma you have to take the exams in 6 subjects including math, language, social studies, foreign language, sciences and an elective. It’s no joke.

If you are only on grade level, ifs a way better play to hope for the best in a few targeted AP classes and do your best on the SAT/ACT with some good internships.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish they would be way more transparent about admissions and performance of the IB program. Maybe it's great! But there are numbers that exist that could be easily used to show this, if it's actually the case.

Well, clearly it's not great if 1% of the kids are passing the math CAPE. But yes, more information would be lovely.

If the 1% is the IB program students, then that’s fine. Your kid will be in the group of kids that are actually learning.

Not all the time. They will still take electives and participate in clubs and other ECs with the 99% of kids who are below grade level. Really think about what that means, to be in a school environment where the vast majority of students are struggling to meet minimum academic standards. Think how small and limited this will make your child's experience, how limiting it will be in terms of friendships, what it will look like for your kid post HS when so few peers pursue college, when many don't even graduate.

Some families don't have much choice of whether to send their kids to a school like that. But in DC people have a choice. And most parents who really value education will continue to not choose Eastern simply because they want more and better for their kids.

I mean … my kid is at a feeder MS for Eastern and I am aware of all of the considerations for his academic needs. But you sound really gross when you write off the less affluent and yes, Black kids, as being basically worthless. I can tell you that my kid is friends with kids of all types and some of those kids you see and worthless have been bright stars for his life. And he has learned to work with and understand all different types of people. I know you’ll claim I am a bad SJW parent but moving him to an all-white affluent school woule be a huge loss in many respects.

NP. You need to get help. No one is saying black kids are worthless. No one. All middle schools in the city are diverse and have black kids, some more than other.

Some kids don’t have options and have to take what life gives them and that is the lower SES kids is what PP is saying.

But as a parent, most with options will not send them to such a poorly performing school just because there of more diversity. They just are not. It’s not like kids at other schools are not friends with minority kids and can get the same experience either.

Also PP above is absolutely correct. The experience of your kid will be very different with friends who can’t relate to things, friends who can’t do things, etc….

The reason they won't send them though is because they don't want to interact with lower SES families and then the domino effect happens because almost all UMC families, who do have resources to help the school, leave.

Mann's PTO can literally fund teachers. Lots of Title 1 schools PTOs can maybe afford a couple pizza parties.

The education follows the money, not, as plenty here want to believe, the money follows the education. And you know that because your last sentence is literally we only want to be around other people with money.

Mann families are never faced with the choice of whether to send their kids to Eastern. The Eastern feeder elementariness largely have nowhere near the money that Mann does (Maury and Brent might, I don't know, but none of the other schools do for sure). Many of these schools are Title 1. All three feeder MSs are Title 1. So you are accusing families whose kids have attended Title 1 elementary schools and sometimes middle schools of not wanting their kids to interact with lower SES families, because they are choosing not to send their kids to Eastern. It doesn't make sense.

No one knows better than a family who has gone through Eastern feeders what the environment at Eastern is likely to be like. And as one of those families, we are making the choice to send our kids elsewhere. It is not about fear of interacting with low SES families. It's about wanting a HS environment that will actually meet the needs of kids who are academic and college bound. Eastern does not currently offer that, the IB program notwithstanding. Yes, you *can* go through Eastern and then go to college (in fact attending the school may offer a boost in admission to many universities that are seeking to boost the number of students from urban Title 1 HSs) but is it a great choice for most kids? No. Does DC offer a variety of other options college bound kids? Yes, and most people pick one of those.

You can sling accusations of classism and racism if you want, but at the end of the day this really is parents just making the right choice for their kids. Including black families. I don't know a single black family in our cohort with college educated parents who are choosing Eastern. Charters, moving, parochial schools, other privates, yes. Eastern, no. It does not offer a good college prep experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish they would be way more transparent about admissions and performance of the IB program. Maybe it's great! But there are numbers that exist that could be easily used to show this, if it's actually the case.

Well, clearly it's not great if 1% of the kids are passing the math CAPE. But yes, more information would be lovely.

If the 1% is the IB program students, then that’s fine. Your kid will be in the group of kids that are actually learning.

Not all the time. They will still take electives and participate in clubs and other ECs with the 99% of kids who are below grade level. Really think about what that means, to be in a school environment where the vast majority of students are struggling to meet minimum academic standards. Think how small and limited this will make your child's experience, how limiting it will be in terms of friendships, what it will look like for your kid post HS when so few peers pursue college, when many don't even graduate.

Some families don't have much choice of whether to send their kids to a school like that. But in DC people have a choice. And most parents who really value education will continue to not choose Eastern simply because they want more and better for their kids.

I mean … my kid is at a feeder MS for Eastern and I am aware of all of the considerations for his academic needs. But you sound really gross when you write off the less affluent and yes, Black kids, as being basically worthless. I can tell you that my kid is friends with kids of all types and some of those kids you see and worthless have been bright stars for his life. And he has learned to work with and understand all different types of people. I know you’ll claim I am a bad SJW parent but moving him to an all-white affluent school woule be a huge loss in many respects.

NP. You need to get help. No one is saying black kids are worthless. No one. All middle schools in the city are diverse and have black kids, some more than other.

Some kids don’t have options and have to take what life gives them and that is the lower SES kids is what PP is saying.

But as a parent, most with options will not send them to such a poorly performing school just because there of more diversity. They just are not. It’s not like kids at other schools are not friends with minority kids and can get the same experience either.

Also PP above is absolutely correct. The experience of your kid will be very different with friends who can’t relate to things, friends who can’t do things, etc….

The reason they won't send them though is because they don't want to interact with lower SES families and then the domino effect happens because almost all UMC families, who do have resources to help the school, leave.

Mann's PTO can literally fund teachers. Lots of Title 1 schools PTOs can maybe afford a couple pizza parties.

The education follows the money, not, as plenty here want to believe, the money follows the education. And you know that because your last sentence is literally we only want to be around other people with money.

When you are talking to parents that have their kids at an Eastern feeder for MS, to remotely suggest they don't want their kids at a school with Black or lower SES kids is laughable. This attitude is what drives people out of DCPS entirely. It's like when my coworkers with kids in the Whitman pyramid lecture me for being concerned about the lack of tracking in DCPS MSes outside of math and (sometimes) ELA. GTFO.

I actually said nothing about race. But the OP pretty blatantly said other kids "can't relate" so yes there's a clear SES issue at play at a lot of schools like Eastern. As higher SES kids leave, parents get gun shy about being the only ones left and that sets off a mad dash of higher performing kids.

I'm not saying Eastern is perfect, but there's absolutely SES prisoner's dilemma that happens at more diverse socioeconomic schools. There are whole threads on here about how terrible the J-R principal is and the drug problems at Hardy and MacArthur. And yet UMC families in other feeders are Hunger Games style lotterying for spots because since they're in predominantly wealthy areas there's the assumption that you'll always have a pipeline of UMC and wealthy kids and families and thus test scores won't drop and kids will have peer hobbies.

I'm not judging people who are weary of other DCPS HSs I'm simply stating that there is obviously an underlying SES impact at play here and causes issues for both families and the schools themselves.

Of course there is an SES issue at play, but that's not the same thing as saying that a PP "do[es]n't want to interact with lower SES families". That is an insane accusation for someone at an Eastern MS feeder (newsflash: all have substantial lower SES populations to majority lower SES populations) and has very different connotations than your "not judging" follow up post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish they would be way more transparent about admissions and performance of the IB program. Maybe it's great! But there are numbers that exist that could be easily used to show this, if it's actually the case.

Well, clearly it's not great if 1% of the kids are passing the math CAPE. But yes, more information would be lovely.

If the 1% is the IB program students, then that’s fine. Your kid will be in the group of kids that are actually learning.

Not all the time. They will still take electives and participate in clubs and other ECs with the 99% of kids who are below grade level. Really think about what that means, to be in a school environment where the vast majority of students are struggling to meet minimum academic standards. Think how small and limited this will make your child's experience, how limiting it will be in terms of friendships, what it will look like for your kid post HS when so few peers pursue college, when many don't even graduate.

Some families don't have much choice of whether to send their kids to a school like that. But in DC people have a choice. And most parents who really value education will continue to not choose Eastern simply because they want more and better for their kids.

I mean … my kid is at a feeder MS for Eastern and I am aware of all of the considerations for his academic needs. But you sound really gross when you write off the less affluent and yes, Black kids, as being basically worthless. I can tell you that my kid is friends with kids of all types and some of those kids you see and worthless have been bright stars for his life. And he has learned to work with and understand all different types of people. I know you’ll claim I am a bad SJW parent but moving him to an all-white affluent school woule be a huge loss in many respects.

NP. You need to get help. No one is saying black kids are worthless. No one. All middle schools in the city are diverse and have black kids, some more than other.

Some kids don’t have options and have to take what life gives them and that is the lower SES kids is what PP is saying.

But as a parent, most with options will not send them to such a poorly performing school just because there of more diversity. They just are not. It’s not like kids at other schools are not friends with minority kids and can get the same experience either.

Also PP above is absolutely correct. The experience of your kid will be very different with friends who can’t relate to things, friends who can’t do things, etc….

The reason they won't send them though is because they don't want to interact with lower SES families and then the domino effect happens because almost all UMC families, who do have resources to help the school, leave.

Mann's PTO can literally fund teachers. Lots of Title 1 schools PTOs can maybe afford a couple pizza parties.

The education follows the money, not, as plenty here want to believe, the money follows the education. And you know that because your last sentence is literally we only want to be around other people with money.

Mann families are never faced with the choice of whether to send their kids to Eastern. The Eastern feeder elementariness largely have nowhere near the money that Mann does (Maury and Brent might, I don't know, but none of the other schools do for sure). Many of these schools are Title 1. All three feeder MSs are Title 1. So you are accusing families whose kids have attended Title 1 elementary schools and sometimes middle schools of not wanting their kids to interact with lower SES families, because they are choosing not to send their kids to Eastern. It doesn't make sense.

No one knows better than a family who has gone through Eastern feeders what the environment at Eastern is likely to be like. And as one of those families, we are making the choice to send our kids elsewhere. It is not about fear of interacting with low SES families. It's about wanting a HS environment that will actually meet the needs of kids who are academic and college bound. Eastern does not currently offer that, the IB program notwithstanding. Yes, you *can* go through Eastern and then go to college (in fact attending the school may offer a boost in admission to many universities that are seeking to boost the number of students from urban Title 1 HSs) but is it a great choice for most kids? No. Does DC offer a variety of other options college bound kids? Yes, and most people pick one of those.

You can sling accusations of classism and racism if you want, but at the end of the day this really is parents just making the right choice for their kids. Including black families. I don't know a single black family in our cohort with college educated parents who are choosing Eastern. Charters, moving, parochial schools, other privates, yes. Eastern, no. It does not offer a good college prep experience.

It is hard to tell if this is the same person coming back and posting repeatedly -- we get why you made/make the education choices you have made, and what your priorities are. Not sure why spelling them out in several paragraphs long posts seems necessary.

There are thousands of families in feeder schools, so the data sampling of your cohort, as well as your family is just that, a data point. It is just as easy for any of us to come on here and write paragraphs about the families we know and their choices. For the sake of all of us, consider your point made, and let this thread die, or at least allow for some other topics relevant to the post to be discussed.

[Anonymous]

This thread was about Eastern trying to improve and people basically immediately saying they'd never send their kids because of test scores and then slowly starting to say also there are other reasons, like fit.

So I mean it, what can Eastern do to prove to higher SES parents to stay. It's apparently not getting a seasoned principal, or building out IB, so what is it? I am sincerely asking. I think there are a lot of HSs and MSs in DC that would love to keep their IB populations but truly struggle with how to balance a culture of people jumping ship even before kids get to MS and HS for WOTP while serving the students that do matriculate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish they would be way more transparent about admissions and performance of the IB program. Maybe it's great! But there are numbers that exist that could be easily used to show this, if it's actually the case.

Well, clearly it's not great if 1% of the kids are passing the math CAPE. But yes, more information would be lovely.

If the 1% is the IB program students, then that’s fine. Your kid will be in the group of kids that are actually learning.

Not all the time. They will still take electives and participate in clubs and other ECs with the 99% of kids who are below grade level. Really think about what that means, to be in a school environment where the vast majority of students are struggling to meet minimum academic standards. Think how small and limited this will make your child's experience, how limiting it will be in terms of friendships, what it will look like for your kid post HS when so few peers pursue college, when many don't even graduate.

Some families don't have much choice of whether to send their kids to a school like that. But in DC people have a choice. And most parents who really value education will continue to not choose Eastern simply because they want more and better for their kids.

I mean … my kid is at a feeder MS for Eastern and I am aware of all of the considerations for his academic needs. But you sound really gross when you write off the less affluent and yes, Black kids, as being basically worthless. I can tell you that my kid is friends with kids of all types and some of those kids you see and worthless have been bright stars for his life. And he has learned to work with and understand all different types of people. I know you’ll claim I am a bad SJW parent but moving him to an all-white affluent school woule be a huge loss in many respects.

NP. You need to get help. No one is saying black kids are worthless. No one. All middle schools in the city are diverse and have black kids, some more than other.

Some kids don’t have options and have to take what life gives them and that is the lower SES kids is what PP is saying.

But as a parent, most with options will not send them to such a poorly performing school just because there of more diversity. They just are not. It’s not like kids at other schools are not friends with minority kids and can get the same experience either.

Also PP above is absolutely correct. The experience of your kid will be very different with friends who can’t relate to things, friends who can’t do things, etc….

Sorry no, that PP pretty much said that my kid could never have any friends at Eastern or any social life. It’s one of the more nakedly offensive and racist things I’ve seen here (and I have seen a lot).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish they would be way more transparent about admissions and performance of the IB program. Maybe it's great! But there are numbers that exist that could be easily used to show this, if it's actually the case.

Well, clearly it's not great if 1% of the kids are passing the math CAPE. But yes, more information would be lovely.

If the 1% is the IB program students, then that’s fine. Your kid will be in the group of kids that are actually learning.

Not all the time. They will still take electives and participate in clubs and other ECs with the 99% of kids who are below grade level. Really think about what that means, to be in a school environment where the vast majority of students are struggling to meet minimum academic standards. Think how small and limited this will make your child's experience, how limiting it will be in terms of friendships, what it will look like for your kid post HS when so few peers pursue college, when many don't even graduate.

Some families don't have much choice of whether to send their kids to a school like that. But in DC people have a choice. And most parents who really value education will continue to not choose Eastern simply because they want more and better for their kids.

I mean … my kid is at a feeder MS for Eastern and I am aware of all of the considerations for his academic needs. But you sound really gross when you write off the less affluent and yes, Black kids, as being basically worthless. I can tell you that my kid is friends with kids of all types and some of those kids you see and worthless have been bright stars for his life. And he has learned to work with and understand all different types of people. I know you’ll claim I am a bad SJW parent but moving him to an all-white affluent school woule be a huge loss in many respects.

PP here. I NEVER said any kid was worthless. I don't think any kid is worthless. That was a word you chose.

Also, my kid is at an Eastern feeder, where she is friends will all types of kids. This is part of why I am so wary of Eastern. I know what it means to maintain friendships with kids on extremely different life trajectories, or who have very different home lives. I think it's very worthwhile and in fact I had friends like this when I was in HS, at a very diverse school.

But Eastern is not diverse, and the truth is that if your child is an academic high achiever with college aspirations, they will be in a small minority at the school. If it were more like 30 or 40 percent of students on that track, I'd be far more interested in the school. Especially if there were also plenty of support for the non-college-bound kids so you could see them moving towards trades and jobs and in a positive direction. That's a lot like the HS I attended, actually.

But that's not Eastern. Eastern has a 70%+ truancy rate. Only 4% of kids are deemed "college ready" according to benchmarking. While almost half of students at Eastern took at least one IB, AP, or dual enrollment course in the most recent school year, less than 20% of those kids (so less than 10% of all students) received a passing score on the exam for that class.

I don't think any student at Eastern is worthless. But I know my kid is college bound, highly academic, and eager to be in a learning environment with like-minded kids. I don't think she'll get that at Eastern. There simply are not enough kids like her there, and I want her to have a more expansive high school experience than to go through an IB program with a handful of similar kids at a school where most kids are just not very academic.

Ok well then speak for you own kid. Others of us have more flexible kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish they would be way more transparent about admissions and performance of the IB program. Maybe it's great! But there are numbers that exist that could be easily used to show this, if it's actually the case.

Well, clearly it's not great if 1% of the kids are passing the math CAPE. But yes, more information would be lovely.

If the 1% is the IB program students, then that’s fine. Your kid will be in the group of kids that are actually learning.

Not all the time. They will still take electives and participate in clubs and other ECs with the 99% of kids who are below grade level. Really think about what that means, to be in a school environment where the vast majority of students are struggling to meet minimum academic standards. Think how small and limited this will make your child's experience, how limiting it will be in terms of friendships, what it will look like for your kid post HS when so few peers pursue college, when many don't even graduate.

Some families don't have much choice of whether to send their kids to a school like that. But in DC people have a choice. And most parents who really value education will continue to not choose Eastern simply because they want more and better for their kids.

I mean … my kid is at a feeder MS for Eastern and I am aware of all of the considerations for his academic needs. But you sound really gross when you write off the less affluent and yes, Black kids, as being basically worthless. I can tell you that my kid is friends with kids of all types and some of those kids you see and worthless have been bright stars for his life. And he has learned to work with and understand all different types of people. I know you’ll claim I am a bad SJW parent but moving him to an all-white affluent school woule be a huge loss in many respects.

NP. You need to get help. No one is saying black kids are worthless. No one. All middle schools in the city are diverse and have black kids, some more than other.

Some kids don’t have options and have to take what life gives them and that is the lower SES kids is what PP is saying.

But as a parent, most with options will not send them to such a poorly performing school just because there of more diversity. They just are not. It’s not like kids at other schools are not friends with minority kids and can get the same experience either.

Also PP above is absolutely correct. The experience of your kid will be very different with friends who can’t relate to things, friends who can’t do things, etc….

The reason they won't send them though is because they don't want to interact with lower SES families and then the domino effect happens because almost all UMC families, who do have resources to help the school, leave.

Mann's PTO can literally fund teachers. Lots of Title 1 schools PTOs can maybe afford a couple pizza parties.

The education follows the money, not, as plenty here want to believe, the money follows the education. And you know that because your last sentence is literally we only want to be around other people with money.

Mann families are never faced with the choice of whether to send their kids to Eastern. The Eastern feeder elementariness largely have nowhere near the money that Mann does (Maury and Brent might, I don't know, but none of the other schools do for sure). Many of these schools are Title 1. All three feeder MSs are Title 1. So you are accusing families whose kids have attended Title 1 elementary schools and sometimes middle schools of not wanting their kids to interact with lower SES families, because they are choosing not to send their kids to Eastern. It doesn't make sense.

No one knows better than a family who has gone through Eastern feeders what the environment at Eastern is likely to be like. And as one of those families, we are making the choice to send our kids elsewhere. It is not about fear of interacting with low SES families. It's about wanting a HS environment that will actually meet the needs of kids who are academic and college bound. Eastern does not currently offer that, the IB program notwithstanding. Yes, you *can* go through Eastern and then go to college (in fact attending the school may offer a boost in admission to many universities that are seeking to boost the number of students from urban Title 1 HSs) but is it a great choice for most kids? No. Does DC offer a variety of other options college bound kids? Yes, and most people pick one of those.

You can sling accusations of classism and racism if you want, but at the end of the day this really is parents just making the right choice for their kids. Including black families. I don't know a single black family in our cohort with college educated parents who are choosing Eastern. Charters, moving, parochial schools, other privates, yes. Eastern, no. It does not offer a good college prep experience.

You are free to do what you want, but you cannot come on here and say reprehensible things like the kids at Eastern aren’t even worth being friends with, and not expect a reaction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish they would be way more transparent about admissions and performance of the IB program. Maybe it's great! But there are numbers that exist that could be easily used to show this, if it's actually the case.

Well, clearly it's not great if 1% of the kids are passing the math CAPE. But yes, more information would be lovely.

If the 1% is the IB program students, then that’s fine. Your kid will be in the group of kids that are actually learning.

Not all the time. They will still take electives and participate in clubs and other ECs with the 99% of kids who are below grade level. Really think about what that means, to be in a school environment where the vast majority of students are struggling to meet minimum academic standards. Think how small and limited this will make your child's experience, how limiting it will be in terms of friendships, what it will look like for your kid post HS when so few peers pursue college, when many don't even graduate.

Some families don't have much choice of whether to send their kids to a school like that. But in DC people have a choice. And most parents who really value education will continue to not choose Eastern simply because they want more and better for their kids.

I mean … my kid is at a feeder MS for Eastern and I am aware of all of the considerations for his academic needs. But you sound really gross when you write off the less affluent and yes, Black kids, as being basically worthless. I can tell you that my kid is friends with kids of all types and some of those kids you see and worthless have been bright stars for his life. And he has learned to work with and understand all different types of people. I know you’ll claim I am a bad SJW parent but moving him to an all-white affluent school woule be a huge loss in many respects.

NP. You need to get help. No one is saying black kids are worthless. No one. All middle schools in the city are diverse and have black kids, some more than other.

Some kids don’t have options and have to take what life gives them and that is the lower SES kids is what PP is saying.

But as a parent, most with options will not send them to such a poorly performing school just because there of more diversity. They just are not. It’s not like kids at other schools are not friends with minority kids and can get the same experience either.

Also PP above is absolutely correct. The experience of your kid will be very different with friends who can’t relate to things, friends who can’t do things, etc….

The reason they won't send them though is because they don't want to interact with lower SES families and then the domino effect happens because almost all UMC families, who do have resources to help the school, leave.

Mann's PTO can literally fund teachers. Lots of Title 1 schools PTOs can maybe afford a couple pizza parties.

The education follows the money, not, as plenty here want to believe, the money follows the education. And you know that because your last sentence is literally we only want to be around other people with money.

Mann families are never faced with the choice of whether to send their kids to Eastern. The Eastern feeder elementariness largely have nowhere near the money that Mann does (Maury and Brent might, I don't know, but none of the other schools do for sure). Many of these schools are Title 1. All three feeder MSs are Title 1. So you are accusing families whose kids have attended Title 1 elementary schools and sometimes middle schools of not wanting their kids to interact with lower SES families, because they are choosing not to send their kids to Eastern. It doesn't make sense.

No one knows better than a family who has gone through Eastern feeders what the environment at Eastern is likely to be like. And as one of those families, we are making the choice to send our kids elsewhere. It is not about fear of interacting with low SES families. It's about wanting a HS environment that will actually meet the needs of kids who are academic and college bound. Eastern does not currently offer that, the IB program notwithstanding. Yes, you *can* go through Eastern and then go to college (in fact attending the school may offer a boost in admission to many universities that are seeking to boost the number of students from urban Title 1 HSs) but is it a great choice for most kids? No. Does DC offer a variety of other options college bound kids? Yes, and most people pick one of those.

You can sling accusations of classism and racism if you want, but at the end of the day this really is parents just making the right choice for their kids. Including black families. I don't know a single black family in our cohort with college educated parents who are choosing Eastern. Charters, moving, parochial schools, other privates, yes. Eastern, no. It does not offer a good college prep experience.

You are free to do what you want, but you cannot come on here and say reprehensible things like the kids at Eastern aren’t even worth being friends with, and not expect a reaction.

Thank you. I feel like I'm going to insane. This person was like my kid really won't find friends they can relate to because they're smart and have wealthy hobbies unlike the Eastern HS kids and then presumably the same person keeps turning around and saying how dare you accuse me of of bigotry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread was about Eastern trying to improve and people basically immediately saying they'd never send their kids because of test scores and then slowly starting to say also there are other reasons, like fit.

So I mean it, what can Eastern do to prove to higher SES parents to stay. It's apparently not getting a seasoned principal, or building out IB, so what is it? I am sincerely asking. I think there are a lot of HSs and MSs in DC that would love to keep their IB populations but truly struggle with how to balance a culture of people jumping ship even before kids get to MS and HS for WOTP while serving the students that do matriculate.

I think they have started a few things that are making inroads - just harder to see from the outside especially if you are a parent of younger kids. It also doesn't help that whatever limited data is publicly available on schools is usually at least a year outdated. I think they realized parents wanted more rigorous options before the IB courses started junior year, so they worked to ramp up their EPIC program. I know they were trying to get it onto MySchoolDC like the other application programs, but until then, the application process is linked through their website. I get the impression the number of kids applying/participating in that program has increased in the past few years.
It also seems like they are trying to connect with the middle school communities, some of the sports teams practice together, I think the bands coordinate together sometimes, etc. I don't know a ton of families there, but the ones I know are happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread was about Eastern trying to improve and people basically immediately saying they'd never send their kids because of test scores and then slowly starting to say also there are other reasons, like fit.

So I mean it, what can Eastern do to prove to higher SES parents to stay. It's apparently not getting a seasoned principal, or building out IB, so what is it? I am sincerely asking. I think there are a lot of HSs and MSs in DC that would love to keep their IB populations but truly struggle with how to balance a culture of people jumping ship even before kids get to MS and HS for WOTP while serving the students that do matriculate.

I think they have started a few things that are making inroads - just harder to see from the outside especially if you are a parent of younger kids. It also doesn't help that whatever limited data is publicly available on schools is usually at least a year outdated. I think they realized parents wanted more rigorous options before the IB courses started junior year, so they worked to ramp up their EPIC program. I know they were trying to get it onto MySchoolDC like the other application programs, but until then, the application process is linked through their website. I get the impression the number of kids applying/participating in that program has increased in the past few years.
It also seems like they are trying to connect with the middle school communities, some of the sports teams practice together, I think the bands coordinate together sometimes, etc. I don't know a ton of families there, but the ones I know are happy.

This is a legitimately helpful response. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread was about Eastern trying to improve and people basically immediately saying they'd never send their kids because of test scores and then slowly starting to say also there are other reasons, like fit.

So I mean it, what can Eastern do to prove to higher SES parents to stay. It's apparently not getting a seasoned principal, or building out IB, so what is it? I am sincerely asking. I think there are a lot of HSs and MSs in DC that would love to keep their IB populations but truly struggle with how to balance a culture of people jumping ship even before kids get to MS and HS for WOTP while serving the students that do matriculate.

Good question. I think the EPIC program is intended to help attract stronger students, so that's one thing. Increasing the quality of academic instruction across the board is the main thing. And I say this from having been involved at a Title I elementary where that approach did work. No name brand programs or partnerships, just a relentless focus on core academics. Yes a high school is very different from an elementary, but still.

This isn't really about figuring out what will keep the highest performance feeder kids right now. It's about gradually increasing performance of the kids they do have. Getting CAPE scores out of the disaster zone so that they are merely bad, then middling. Keeping more and more of their feeder and IB kids so that entering kids went to decent middle schools. It's a very slow and gradual process and retaining the top kids is at the end of the process.